High-frequency-link power-conversion system having direct double-frequency ripple current control and method of use

• US 8,711,585 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2013
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Florida State University Research Foundation, Inc. (State University System of Florida)
• Original Assignee: Florida State University Research Foundation, Inc. (State University System of Florida)
• Inventors: Liu, Xiaohu, Li, Hui
• Primary Examiner(s): Berhane, Adolf
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, Jye-June
• Application Number:
  US14/018,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20140063874A1
• Time in Patent Office: 236 Days
• Field of Search: 363/39, 363/40, 363/41, 363/43
• US Class Current: 363/40
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/30 The power source being a fuel cell
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0058 by employing soft switching techniques, i.e. commutation of transistors when applied voltage is zero or when current flow is zero using an auxiliary actively switched resonant commutation circuit connected to an intermediate DC voltage or between two push-pull branches of an inverter bridge H02M7/4811; in resonant inverters H02M7/4815; in inverters operating from a resonant DC source H02M7/4826
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/007 Plural converter units in cascade push-pull DC/DC converters with pre-regulator H02M3/3374; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC stage including a high frequency transformer H02M7/4807; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC conversion stage generating periodically varying voltages H02M7/4826
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/14 Arrangements for reducing ripples from dc input or output
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/143 using compensating arrangements for reducing noise from the supply in transmission systems H04B15/005
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/3376 with automatic control of output voltage or current
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes

Abstract

A direct double-frequency ripple current control in a two-stage high-frequency-link (HFL) based fuel cell converter that can achieve low-frequency ripple free input current without using large electrolytic capacitors is provided. To eliminate the double-frequency ripple current disturbance introduced by the single-phase inverter load, a proportional-resonant (PR) controller is developed to achieve an extra high control gain at designed resonant frequency. This high gain can be viewed as the virtual high impedance for blocking the double-frequency ripple energy propagation from inverter load to fuel cell stack. More particularly, the proposed control system can realize the utilization of all capacitive ripple energy sources in the system by regulating all the capacitors to have large voltage swing and the voltage swing is synchronized to keep real-time balancing of the transformer primary-side and secondary-side voltages. As a result, the zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) operation for all switching devices in the dc-dc stage can be guaranteed.

Claims

1. A method for reducing a double-frequency ripple current disturbance introduced by an inverter load coupled to a fuel cell system, the method comprising:

generating, by a first proportional-resonant controller, an output having a first double-frequency component of a phase shift angle between the active switches on a low voltage side (LVS) and a high voltage side (HVS) of a fuel cell system;

generating, by a proportional-integral controller, an output having a dc component and a second double-frequency component of the phase shift angle between the active switches on the low voltage side (LVS) and the high voltage side (HVS) of the fuel cell system; and

offsetting the first double-frequency component generated by the first proportional-resonant controller with the second double-frequency component generated by the proportional-integral controller to reduce a double-frequency ripple current disturbance introduced when an inverter load is coupled to the fuel cell system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating, by a first proportional-resonant controller, an output having a first double-frequency component of a phase shift angle between active switches on a low voltage side (LVS) and a high voltage side (HVS) of the fuel cell system further comprises supplying a fuel cell current of the fuel cell system and a current ripple reference to the first proportional-resonant controller.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating, by a first proportional-resonant controller, an output having a first double-frequency component of a phase shift angle between active switches on a low voltage side (LVS) and a high voltage side (HVS) of the fuel cell system further comprises, setting the first proportional-resonant controller to a resonant frequency of the first proportional-resonant controller.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the resonant frequency is 120 Hz.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating, by a proportional-integral controller, an output having a dc component and a second double-frequency component of the phase shift angle between the active switches on the low voltage side (LVS) and the high voltage side (HVS) of the fuel cell system further comprises supplying a high voltage side dc bus voltage of the fuel cell system and a voltage reference to the proportional-integral controller.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, generating, by a second proportional-resonant controller, a duty cycle having a dc component and a ripple component.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating, by a the second proportional-resonant controller, a duty cycle having a dc component and a ripple component further comprises, supplying a high voltage side dc bus voltage of the fuel cell system multiplied by a transformer turns ratio of the fuel cell system and a low voltage side dc bus voltage to the second proportional-resonant controller.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the ripple component of the duty cycle is generated by synchronizing the low voltage side dc bus voltage and a primary-referred high voltage side dc bus voltage.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the dc component of the duty cycle is set to 0.5.

10. A system for reducing a double-frequency ripple current disturbance introduced by an inverter load coupled to a fuel cell system, the system comprising:

a first proportional-resonant controller configured for generating an output having a first double-frequency component of a phase shift angle between active switches on a low voltage side (LVS) and a high voltage side (HVS) of a fuel cell system;

a proportional-integral controller configured for generating an output having a dc component and a second double-frequency component of the phase shift angle between the active switches on the low voltage side (LVS) and the high voltage side (HVS) of the fuel cell system; and

circuitry for offsetting the first double-frequency component generated by the first proportional-resonant controller with the second double-frequency component generated by the proportional-integral controller to reduce a double-frequency ripple current disturbance introduced when an inverter load is coupled to the fuel cell system.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising a fuel cell current of the fuel cell system coupled to a first input of the first proportional-resonant controller and a current ripple reference coupled to a second input of the first proportional-resonant controller.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the first proportional-resonant controller is set to a resonant frequency of the first proportional-resonant controller.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the resonant frequency is 120 Hz.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising a high voltage side dc bus voltage of the fuel cell system coupled to a first input of the proportional-integral controller and a voltage reference coupled to a second input of the proportional-integral controller.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising a second proportional-resonant controller configured for generating a duty cycle having a dc component and a ripple component.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a high voltage side dc bus voltage of the fuel cell system multiplied by a transformer turns ratio of the fuel cell system coupled to a first input of the second proportional-resonant controller and a low voltage side dc bus voltage coupled to a second input of the second proportional-resonant controller.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second proportional-resonant controller is further configured for generating the ripple component of the duty cycle by synchronizing the low voltage side dc bus voltage and a primary-referred high voltage side dc bus voltage.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the dc component of the duty cycle is set to 0.5.

19. A system for reducing a double-frequency ripple current disturbance introduced by an inverter load coupled to a fuel cell system, the system comprising:

a first proportional-resonant controller configured for generating an output having a first double-frequency component of a phase shift angle between active switches on a low voltage side (LVS) and a high voltage side (HVS) of a fuel cell system;

a proportional-integral controller configured for generating an output having a dc component and a second double-frequency component of the phase shift angle between the active switches on the low voltage side (LVS) and the high voltage side (HVS) of the fuel cell system;

a second proportional-resonant controller configured for generating a duty cycle having a dc component and a ripple component; and

circuitry for offsetting the first double-frequency component generated by the first proportional-resonant controller with the second double-frequency component generated by the proportional-integral controller to reduce a double-frequency ripple current disturbance introduced when an inverter load is coupled to the fuel cell system.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a frequency of the first proportional-resonant controller is set to a resonant frequency of 120 Hz.